The Girls by Lori Lansens

 

This is the story of Siamese twins who are joined at the head. They are abandoned at birth by their mother and raised by the nurse who helped deliver them. The girls write alternating chapters telling their life story. While I enjoyed read this book immensely, it is a work of fiction. I would have preferred to read a true story of Siamese twins. 

The book was well written and every page was a delight to read, most people in the book club enjoyed reading it, one person found it just a little too unreal.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusack

 I found this book difficult at first, but the more I read through it, the more I liked it. By the time I finished, it became one of those books that will remain in my heart forever. The story is that of an ordinary girl, Liesel, who grew up on an ordinary street in Germany during the Second World War. The book is narrated by the character Death, which in particular makes it memorable. He keeps telling us when he is needed and when he will come back soon, and how busy he was on certain days. But he follows Liesel in particular and so narrates the story of her life.

I found the book in the teen section of the library, but I'm not sure why someone decided it should go there. I'm still not sure if the themes of the Holocaust should even be told to teens. The book contains a man who is hidden in the basement, a father who is forced into labor for the Nazis, a teen who refuses to join the Nazi Youth, lots of bombing and of course a large amount of death. For me, by the time I finished the book I felt I knew the people in the book really well, and that is full credit to the author's writing.

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

 Henrietta Lacks was an African American born in 1920, who had a very severe form of cervical cancer. Without her knowledge some cancer cells, now known as HeLa cells, were taken for medical research. These cells were kept alive and grown in the lab enabling research that had never been done before. The cells were then mass grown and helped in the research or cure of polio, AIDS and cancer.

The book parallels the life of Henrietta Lacks with the story of the cells. How the family lived in poverty yet the cells made money for those who developed patents from working with them.

Henrietta died at the age of 31, but her cells live for ever and save the lives of other people, and that is the story of the book.

My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

 

When you read a lot of books, you find there are many similarities between the books you read. This book was just different - and I loved it.

It is the love story of Daniel and Sophia who die and are reborn as different people in different times. Just that idea alone made it different from anything else I've ever read. It's a gripping read and one of those books I just couldn't put down.

It's the way that it's written that gripped me, I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. And now I've finished reading the book, I'm looking forward to the sequel to find out what happens next.

Definitely a good book to discuss in a book club.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

 

The Help takes place during the 1960s civil rights movement. One white woman, Skeeter, collects stories from a number of black women and publishes them in a book. The black women tell the stories of how they are treated, and the book does a really good job of describing the happenings and emotions of the time in a G rated format. 

The book was easy to read, and once I'd started, I couldn't put it down. I even gave the book to my young teen to educate her about that time.

Then, as a group we went to see the movie together, and found it to be very true to the book. No wonder the book was a best seller, I think any book club would enjoy reading it together.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

 

Abraham Verghese was a doctor first before becoming an author, and it shows in this book. He writes descriptive details of operations and procedures that highlight his medical knowledge and experience. He includes in the book ethical subjects such as female circumcision and transplant from a live donor. But they are not the core of the book.

The book starts in a mission hospital in Ethiopia and the birth of twins fathered by an Indian nun and a British doctor. At times, the twins seem like opposites, suggesting the good and evil of the same person. Neither of the parents are in the life of the twins after they were born, and they are raised by the people in the mission.

The book is a good history of Ethiopia, most of which I didn't know before I read the book. The book tells the story of civil unrest from an individual's point of view.

I thought the setting was unusual, the birth of twins in Ethiopia to an Indian nun. Then I read about Abraham Verghese on Wikipedia and discovered he was born in Ethiopia to Indian parents, so the book is somewhat biographical.

The book has everything you need in a good novel, great plot, interesting characters, unusual setting and even a murder at one point (or, was it an accident?) It certainly led to a great discussion. Some of us thought it was a little long and didn't like the descriptions of medical procedures, but personally I got a big feeling that the author knew a lot more than me about the subject he was writing about, and that fact made me enjoy the book immensely.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

 Oh, my goodness! What an amazing book! This is one of my all time favorite books. I read it with one book club and then suggested it to another, just so I could read it again. There are plots, sub plots, parallel plots and things that happen that you aren't told about. If I had read it in book form I would not have wanted to put it down, but I listened to it in the car and found myself wanting to drive somewhere just so that I could listen to the next installment of the book. The audiobook is very well done and I enjoyed listening to it immensely. The fact that it was a mystery and I had to wait between installments made it even more fascinating.

The main plot is set about 50-70 years ago in England amongst over privileged and under civilized people. The setting is a large stately home. That plot is intertwined with the storyteller's modern day life which is set a little before the Internet happened. The exact year is also not specified. It flows beautifully, giving you just enough information bit by bit to keep you enthralled in the plot.

There were a number of quotes and references to some of the classics, mainly Jane Eyre. And some parallels to those books, too. It is definitely a book for book lovers and a must for your book club.